This investigation, part of the on-going “Operation Yowie” project, aimed at gathering good circumstantial, as well as possible physical evidence, on the existence of these relict hominids.

It must be emphasized here that the world ‘Yowie’ meant “Hairy man” or “Hairy people”, not because these hominids were/are covered in long thick hair, but because of the animal [ie marsupial] hide garments they wore like the early Aboriginal tribespeople.

Thus the Yowie is no hairy ape-like monster as many people mistakenly believe, but a primitive tool-making, fire-making hominid. In fact, all available evidence points to the Yowie as being surviving remnant populations of Homo erectus, our immediate ancestor.

Bega-South Coastal Mountain Ranges Districts

“The Doolegard, better known elsewhere as the Yowie, is still present in the Bega-south coastal mountain ranges districts. Sightings and close encounters with these male and female primitives have been claimed by Europeans as far back as 1840 in the Bega district alone”, says noted Australian “Yowie Man”, Rex Gilroy of Katoomba NSW.

Rex the “Yowie man” has been researching these hominids since he was a teenager, and is currently celebrating 50 years as the ‘father’ of Australian Yowie [relict hominid] and Cryptozoological Research. Together with his wife, Heather, he has operated the “Australian Yowie Research Centre” at Katoomba since the mid-1970s, for the purpose of gathering all the evidence they can on these often elusive, secretive beings.

In 2000 they established “Operation Yowie”, an on-going field investigation supported by research teams throughout the whole of eastern Australia’s mountain ranges.“Since 2000 our [non-profit] organisation has gathered an impressive array of new sightings reports, footprint finds and other evidence from remote, little-explored areas”, says Rex. The Gilroys welcome any helpful information from readers and can be contacted at PO Box 202 Katoomba, NSW 2780; Ph 02 4782 3441; Email:To Contact Rex & Heather:
New Email From September 2011rrandhgilroy1044@gmail.com

“Old Aboriginal and early settlers traditions have identified three basic forms of “hairy people”; the Doolegard/Yowie, ranging from 1.5 to 1.8 metres tall; a giant race of around 3.66 metres height and a pygmy race of around 1 metre height. Fossil evidence being gathered by us from throughout Australia suggests to us that all have Homo erectus beginnings”, Rex Gilroy adds.

The Gilroys are concerned with laying the “fossil foundations” of the Yowie mystery. Over a period of 30 years they have gathered an impressive array of fossil hominid skulls from their Australia-wide searches, all displaying an evolutionary progression from Homo erectus to modern humans [Homo sapiens], dating back over a million years.“It is an interesting point that, wherever we have uncovered fossil Homo erectus skull-types, Aboriginal people say that the area was once, or still is, a “Hairy people” habitat.

This is especially so in the Bega, Nowra, Blue Mountains, Oberon and Taree districts where we have made significant finds in recent months”, Rex the “Yowie Man” points out.
The Gilroys are currently preparing to launch another field search with their assistants in the Bega/Wadbilliga/Deua wilds, following recent finds of freshly made stone tools at apparent abandoned Doolegard campsites.

“In recent months the “Operation Yowie” teams have uncovered recently-manufactured stone tools in open or rock overhang campsites in the Wadbilliga and Blue Mountains wilds. These sites have been left undisturbed in the hope of finding more evidence of hominid regular use of these campsites on periodic inspections.
Our scientific approach has finally demolished the image of the Yowie/Doolegard as some big hairy gorilla-like monster, which has long been a popular myth. Homo erectus was/is instead, a tool-making, fire-making race whom scientists now believe possessed the power of speech. We rest our case”, says Rex.